The African National Congress (ANC) in Gauteng says its guidelines on the selection of councillor candidates have helped to produce competent ward councillors who could be deployed as Members of a Mayoral Committee.
The ANC has no PR seats in the three metros in the province after last week’s local government elections.
Normally, the regional office-bearers are brought in as PR councillors. But this time around, the ANC failed to secure a single PR seat in Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane, which left its regional leaders out in the cold.
However, speaking to SABC News, ANC Provincial Coordinator Sochaile Khanyile says their councillor candidate selection has proven handy.
“There were some minimum standards that had to be set, and one of them is the level of education. Thirdly, we had to take them through vetting to ensure that we don’t put criminals there. So, I am confident that, even without those numbers in the PR seats, we have got good-quality candidates who are going to be councillors out of that system and are going to represent the ANC, whatever the outcome of the negotiations is going to be.”
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